This photo is from March 14, the last time I visited the closed shortcut from South Albany High on 36th Avenue to Ermine Street to the north.
Neighbors now don’t have to worry that the city will reopen the handy shortcut from 36th Avenue to Ermine Street near South Albany High School.
Alex Rice, who moved to South Albany last fall and is interested in active transportation, asked the city council on March 13 to open the 50-foot-long path. The path is roughly in the middle of an otherwise unbroken five-block stretch of 36th Avenue, across the street from the high school and the Albany Community Pool.
But on Wednesday night, Rice went before the council again and reported he had met with a group of neighbors of the closed shortcut, heard their concerns, and changed his mind. He withdrew his suggestion that the path be reopened.
One of the neighbors, Jack Sparks, whose house is on Westwood Place S.E. near the closed path, also spoke to the council and thanked Rice for meeting with property owners and hearing their concerns.
Rice had reached out to people who commented on the March 15 story here that reported his original request of two days before. This resulted in the group meeting.
Rice said he understood that the residents didn’t want to face the problems the neighborhood had when the path was open. And he planned to come up with an alternative connection — via Columbus Street — to reach the Periwinkle Bikepath from that area of South Albany.
The council closed the shortcut temporarily in 2009 and made the closure indefinite a year later. The decision was prompted by reports of all kinds of bad behavior — drug use, fights, harassment of neighbors — by young people hanging around that area before and after school.
On Wednesday night, nearly every council member and Mayor Alex Johnson II thanked Rice for the way he had resolved the situation by engaging with the neighbors.
What hasn’t been resolved is an apparent contradiction. The path is what’s left when the council vacated that section of Ermine Street in 1975, and the ordinance vacating the street provided that the center strip, 10 feet wide, “be permanently maintained as a pedestrian walkway-bicycle path.”
“Permanently maintained” doesn’t necessarily mean the path has to be open, one city official told me once. Well then, what exactly does it mean? (hh)
I wish they would change the ordinance, then. As it stands, it seems like a bad precedent, capricious ordinance enforcement.
i wish i lived in that area, i would use the path for exercise. why? who will stop me? A.P.D.??
The city needs to rethink some of their other decisions as well. The council’s decision to vacate Jefferson street and allow the shelter to expand has created a big mess for the surrounding businesses and traffic that uses that area to connect to the overpass. Marvin’s garden is a hazard and the shelter has always been a plague to the city. There are police and emergency vehicles at the shelter and Marvin’s garden on a regular basis plus us having to dodge the homeless walking in front of us and driving in the area all day long. The city did not listen to any of the businesses there when they protested the expansion of the shelter. It is not a positive step to promote slum areas over the local businesses that support our economy.
This statement in Hasso’s blog above is the more relevant concern:
“The decision was prompted by reports of all kinds of bad behavior — drug use, fights, harassment of neighbors — by young people hanging around that area before and after school.”
The businesses in Albany would fully support a shelter if was placed in an area where it was not interfering with the general population trying to make a living. There are larger areas in Albany that would be actually be more beneficial for homeless. That area is just not big enough or a good place to have that kind of facility. They need more space to accommodate the amount of homeless that are here in Albany. It was opened in that location over 24 years ago and just keeps getting worse every year. It has never been a viable location. The helping hands shelter has always been a thorn in Albany’s side. How many businesses will have to leave before the city of Albany cares? Because many do want to leave here due to the cities attitude towards them.
Actually a shelter in existence for 24 years sounds pretty “viable”.
It seems that the city council over the years have been ignoring the complaints of crimes at and around the shelter, yet they wont open up a 50 ft. pathway because a FEW neighbors protested.
I feel that the homeless community is getting worse and worse every year due to drug use and mental issues. Finding a solution seems to be an ongoing situation for Albany. Hopefully we can figure this all out together because it is a big problem and gets bigger every year. How do we fix it. Good question more taxes most likely
The city council just do what they are told to do. They do not consider how it affects the community at large. It is not where council members work or live. They don’t understand that when they are considerate to one area and not another it is discriminatory. People are not impressed with their fluctuating judgement based on who it is or where it is at. Then placing the homeless in a very dangerous area with a lot of traffic and large trucks. They are often high or mentally out of their minds wandering out into the streets. It is just common sense. Compassion was not used in that decision.
I went to school there and lots of students would always go this way to skip school and smoke there. Honestly probably for the best.
A PRACTICAL SOLUTION, AND BEING CONCERNED ABOUT THOSE WHO LIVE THERE, BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ISSUE THE PUBLIC HAS NO ACCESS TO THIS PUBLIC CORRIDOR AND THAT WOULD BE A SHAME.. THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM IS A SOCIETAL PROBLEM, UNWANTED BEHAVIOR BY TEENAGERS. AS A SOCIETY WE CAN NOT GO BACKWARDS, SO MOVING FORWARD AS A SOCIETY WHERE WE CAN GET ALONG WOULD INCLUDE TEACHING BY THE SCHOOL AS WELL AS PARENTS THAT KIDS NEED TO LEARN SELF RESPONSIBILITY AND THINKING ABOUT OTHERS AS WELL AS MAKE THE KIDS MORE RESILIENCE ESPECIALLY WITH AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE., WE CAN HOPE.OR WE GET INVOLVED.AND TRY TO SOLVE THE ISSUES AS A COMMUNITY.
Forget the definition of permanent.
If it’s fenced off, it’s no longer a “pedestrian walkway-bicycle path”
I grew up with a friend who’s family owned the house to the left of the path, in the 70’s and 80’s. The kids skipping school would hang out beside their garage all day. You couldn’t see that area from the windows, so it really couldn’t be monitored by the home owners. It’s sad, but probably best to leave it closed.
So sad that instead of working on the problems with the youth they are ignored and the general public pays the price